The parents of Audrie Pott, the 15-year-old Saratoga High student who killed herself eight days after being sexually assaulted, want more than justice. They have come forward in a very public, very painful, way to allow her trauma and death to become a cautionary tale.

What's distressing is that the lessons of this awful case were not already ingrained in the assailants, and witnesses to the crime or its photographic evidence, long before Audrie became intoxicated and passed out at a Labor Day weekend party. That cell-phone photos of the assault were then circulated among her classmates shows a shocking obliviousness to the gravity of the crime.

The case carries distinct echoes of the outrage of Steubenville, Ohio, where two high school athletes recently were convicted of assaulting an unconscious 16-year-old girl whose attack was recorded on videos that were posted in social media. In both cases, it took months for authorities to act. Three 16-year-old boys were arrested Thursday in connection with the assault on Audrie.

For all the common elements, there were important distinctions, the most important of which is that Audrie committed suicide within a week of acknowledging her humiliation.

"This is the worst day ever," she wrote on Facebook about the circulation of explicit pictures of the attack.

Audrie's parents, who did not learn about the assault until after her death, have made themselves a force for justice. They have provided photos of their daughter and encouraged news organizations to make exceptions to policies against using the names of sexual assault victims.

They have demanded that the three youths be tried as adults. They immediately fired back at the defense attorneys' dismissal of "the attempt to link (Audrey's) suicide" to their clients' actions. On Monday, her parents filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the three boys.

Audrie's family also has set up a foundation in their daughter's name and has signaled its desire for legislation ("Audrie's Law") on cyberbullying in the aftermath of sexual assaults.

Beyond the legal pursuits will be the question that all parents should ask themselves: What can I do to combat the culture of callousness and obliviousness that allowed Audrie Pott to be assaulted, and then humiliated in an aggravated act of cruelty?

All of us need to remind our daughters about the dangers of alcohol abuse. All of us need to tell our sons about the seriousness and human toll of sexual abuse. And all of us need to remind all of our sons and daughters of their obligation to intervene, not gawk or chortle or remain silent for peer acceptance, when an incapacitated human being is being abused.